Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man

KM left Paris for the Prieuré des Basses Loges, at Avon near Fontainebleau, where she entered the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man run by George Ivanovich Gurdjieff .

Helen Byatt traces the quests of The Hearing Trumpet to texts the author encountered as a child, including the pre-Christian fairy tales and Celtic narratives shared by her nanny and maternal relatives along with Robert Graves